Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-02-08
DaiIu Kennebrr Jnurnal.
The R.r H.rbor Water Case.

reside in Albany, New York, and have a
summer home at Northeast Harbor, Mt Des.
ert constructed thu water works at the latter
place. By profession am a civil engineer
and have made water supply specially
was the engineering member Of the state
! Board Of Health of New York from rs to SO
and director of the State Survey. and am
low consulting engineer of the State Board
of health. Under the laws of New York the
State Board Of Health is intrusted with great
powers. legislative powers, with reference to
the protection of water supplies. Being the
engineering member of that board, all matters
connected with water supply were intrusted
to me. For this reason l had to pay very
special attention to water supply. The
Board of Health in that State stands in a
| judicial capacity between the people and
water companies to see that the people have
proper attention, and that the supplies of
water are pure and wholesome. Certain
general results have come out of all this ex
perience one of which is that unless water
companies equally represent the best intel
| ligence and property interests of cOmmu-
nifty they very often haven't done their duty
towards the community. In other words
water being as essential to the health of a
community as air, public health and property
depend upon the water companies. A water
company should be representative of the
interests at stake, and in cases in New York
where they have not been representative,
the service has rarely been satisfactory. A
service depending upon the control of one
man z ives results most unsatisfactory. My
point is that water companies should be either
representative of the interests of the people
or in the control of the municipality.
As regards this matter of Bar Harbor, /
into IL f,r fhn ito I
called over to Bar Harbor, knowing nothing
OF their conditions, and | met large num-
Der of gentlemen representative of the
| summer residents there, whom l shall call
ci,izens because as related to all sanitary
measures they are az deeply interested and
have as much at risk in the lives of their
families and 10 their property as if they lived
there all the year round. | found existing
great anxiety about the water supply, both
as to its purity and suffcency Fear wa
expressed that it was fast failing. These
gentlemen, many of whom | knew, were
rel resentativs of the large property interests
at Bar Harbor, At their request | went to
examine the water supply. found running
gu. of Eagle Lake what is called Duck brook,
which flows down some 5000 feet and winds
through swamp nearly half mile long.
In passing through this swamp the brook
spreads out into shallow pools, and there |
found stagnsnt water and decaying moss.
Below was an old wooden dam and then a
reservoir and stone dam. Water was going
through the old dam and flowing down into
the reservoir in which there was about feet
Of water, Just enough to cover the top of the
intake pipe which runs from there down to
Eden street, 3400 feet, and follows along it
1000 feet to Bar Harbor, BY the Coast Sur
vey map the Eagle lake is 275 fl. above the
level of the sea, the upper end Of the swamp
about 2I5 # the lower end about 2l0 it,, the
surface of the reservoir about 200 it., and the
intake pipe | suppose to be about 100 #. as
near as | could determine from the map. The
corner of Mt Desert and Cottage street, is
10 feet $40 inches above the sea-
followed down the ~ and lOinch pipes and
found large leaks in them. In many places
this 10 inch pipe is not laid over two or three
feet in the ground, and found great deal
If leakage around ii. The ~ inch pipe is
laid in trench, the top being on a level with
he surface of the ground, and then it is
boxed. | understood that in winter they
threw some brush over it to prevent its freez
ing. | found water running through the dam
and gate; both were leaking very badly. |
ex mined the gate to see whether the leaks
could be stopped to save the water from run
ming to waste. but could find no method of
stopping them. / tested the water Just be-
low the swamp and found it fiat and SWAMI V
in taste and having a slight odor. | took its
temperature August 27th, and found it rs de-
grees. Then going up into the swamp
! found many pools the temperature of which
was between 76 and 80 degrees After care
fully examining the surface, became con
WINGED tina; it was very easy to account for
the taste of the water below. Water was
teaching through a large amount of decay wing
moss and vegetable matter into the stream
followed up the brook. Above the swamp it
flows along a rocky bed, and these rocks were
covered with green moss which had evil
IDENTITY fourished when the stream was full {;
but it was dead or dying at the time of nv
visit, and the soluble products of decay were
all teaching into the brook. | went up to the
lake. where | found three men employed by
| the Bar Harbor Water Co. engaged in blast
| ing. They informed me they had been there
two weeks. | learned from them that during
the first week they were there, which was the
week previous to my visit, the lake had fallen
six inches, and the week Immediately before
my visit four inches, making a total tall of
ten Inches in two weeks. The granite there
at tie outlet of the lake rises to a lin, and
while the water is above that lip 1t will flow
over and down Duck brook when it falls be-
low, none flows down the brook and none
could reach Bar IIarbor 1t was evident To
me that the supply at Bar Harbor deperded
entirely upon the conditions of this lake
was startled by the account given of the rapid
fall, but was in measure prepared for it, tor
in lower Hadlock pond which supplies North.
east Harbor, had found the fall on certain
days, due to evaporation, was an inch dav
Gentlemen will remember the remarkable
droulh last year. At Eagle Lake found thai
the water had fallen below what was once the
natural lip of the rock, but that an artificial
chanel about one foot deep by FIVE fee
broad had been cut through the rock. Tha,
lust took off the top of the granite lip
fixed an initial point there and measured &c
the surface of the water and also the depth il
the channel and made observations on the
rate of flow through this channel | fount
the lake discbarging about $50 600 gallon,
per diem, subject perhaps to 10 or Is pei
cent error, for nobody claims definite accur
acy in this method of determining the flow o
streams. Upon that same afternoon | esti
mated the leakage through the dam as beini
about 10 per cent of the water that reached
the dam. So that the intake pipe was carry
tirg towards Bar Harbor somewhere from
$50, 900 to GOO 900 gallons. l say dowr
towards Bar Harbor, because the leaks in thu
pipes were so large that l cannot tell wha
reached Bar Harbor at that time. On Angus
2Sth the water in the channel flowing out OF
Eagle Lake was only nine inches deep.
again returned and made measurements, anc
found that in two days the watel
tbn loEn had fol ,nah ND {